Manager Steve Lovell returns to his hometown club this weekend – but insists his heart belongs to Gillingham now.

The Gills boss was the happiest man in Kent when his side were paired with Championship Swansea in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

It’s an occasion he’ll saviour, along with more than 1,200 travelling fans.

“I left Swansea a long time ago and there is more of a love here than at Swansea,” said Lovell, who will have no split loyalties on Saturday.

“I have more of a rapport with this football club than I did at Swansea.

“Yes, Swansea is my home town, but from a football point of view Gillingham is my club, the club I love and work for. We will be doing everything to win on Saturday.”

Lovell has lived in Rainham since 1984 and after scoring more than 100 goals for the Gills as a player, he returned to hold various backroom positions before finally getting the manager’s job in November 2017.

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While much of the focus pre-match has been on the manager, it’s now down to the players to show what they can do.

Lovell is hoping they can eradicate the errors from last Saturday’s defeat to Walsall.

He said: “The most important thing is the game and putting on a performance that will warrant giving Swansea a good game.

“We are good enough to give them a game and give ourselves a chance of going through or bringing them back here (to Priestfield).

“We will be going there with a positive frame of mind and after the defeat on Saturday it is a matter of bouncing back and forgetting that.

“We have done it many times before, we have lost games on a Saturday and then come out and performed well. That is what we have to do again.”

Swansea are six points adrift of the play-off places in the Championship under Graham Potter, who was brought in after relegation last season ended a seven-year stint in the Premier League.

Swansea named their strongest team possible in the last round, defeating Aston Villa 3-0 away, and Lovell knows this weekend’s task will be a big one.

He said: “It is going to be a challenge. It is every week, you don’t get anything unless you work hard.

“We have to put in a performance like what we did against Cardiff (in the last round) and restrict them to as few chances as possible. We are always capable of nicking a goal because of the players we have got.

“We went through a lot of analysis on Monday, a lot of looking at the last game and trying to analyse what we can put right from a defensive point of view. If we are all at it defensively and as a unit then we have a chance of winning games.

“We need to make sure they learn from what we are showing them and hopefully if we can eradicate those mistakes we will become better for it.”